The present invention relates to rod sampling, and provides a method and apparatus for sampling rods including cigarettes, filter cigarettes and filter rods.
When manufacturing cigarettes and cigarette filter rods it is important that random samples are tested for the required quality and performance, for example weight, pressure drop, size etc. The samples may be removed during manufacture from a production line, e.g. from a mass flow, and transported to a test site without interrupting the manufacturing process. Any variation of the samples from a sufficient standard of quality and performance may be due to a problem in the manufacturing process, requiring adjustment or even termination of the process. Cigarettes and cigarette filter rod products are manufactured at a rate of several hundred per second; it is important that any problem is recognised (and solved) quickly in order to avoid manufacture of large numbers of inferior products (which must then be discarded).